Word associations have been used widely in psychology, but the validity of their application strongly depends on the number of cues included in the study and the extent to which they probe all ...associations known by an individual. In this work, we address both issues by introducing a new English word association dataset. We describe the collection of word associations for over 12,000 cue words, currently the largest such English-language resource in the world. Our procedure allowed subjects to provide multiple responses for each cue, which permits us to measure weak associations. We evaluate the utility of the dataset in several different contexts, including lexical decision and semantic categorization. We also show that measures based on a mechanism of spreading activation derived from this new resource are highly predictive of direct judgments of similarity. Finally, a comparison with existing English word association sets further highlights systematic improvements provided through these new norms.
The radiological characterization of soil contaminated with natural radionuclides enables the classification of the area under investigation, the optimization of laboratory measurements, and informed ...decision-making on potential site remediation. Neural networks (NN) are emerging as a new candidate for performing these tasks as an alternative to conventional geostatistical tools such as Co-Kriging. This study demonstrates the implementation of a NN for estimating radiological values such as ambient dose equivalent (H*(10)), surface activity and activity concentrations of natural radionuclides present in a waste dump of a Cu mine with a high level of natural radionuclides. The results obtained using a NN were compared with those estimated by Co-Kriging. Both models reproduced field measurements equivalently as a function of spatial coordinates. Similarly, the deviations from the reference concentration values obtained in the output layer of the NN were smaller than the deviations obtained from the multiple regression analysis (MRA), as indicated by the results of the root mean square error. Finally, the method validation showed that the estimation of radiological parameters based on their spatial coordinates faithfully reproduced the affected area. The estimation of the activity concentrations was less accurate for both the NN and MRA; however, both methods gave statistically comparable results for activity concentrations obtained by gamma spectrometry (Student's t-test and Fisher's F-test).
Landraces (traditional varieties) of domesticated species preserve useful genetic variation, yet they remain untapped due to the genetic linkage between the few useful alleles and hundreds of ...undesirable alleles. We integrated two approaches to characterize the diversity of 4,471 maize landraces. First, we mapped genomic regions controlling latitudinal and altitudinal adaptation and identified 1,498 genes. Second, we used F-one association mapping (FOAM) to map the genes that control flowering time, across 22 environments, and identified 1,005 genes. In total, we found that 61.4% of the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with altitude were also associated with flowering time. More than half of the SNPs associated with altitude were within large structural variants (inversions, centromeres and pericentromeric regions). The combined mapping results indicate that although floral regulatory network genes contribute substantially to field variation, over 90% of the contributing genes probably have indirect effects. Our dual strategy can be used to harness the landrace diversity of plants and animals.
We have developed an inorganic sea spray source function that is based upon state-of-the-art measurements of sea spray aerosol production using a temperature-controlled plunging jet sea spray aerosol ...chamber. The size-resolved particle production was measured between 0.01 and 10 mu m dry diameter. Particle production decreased non-linearly with increasing seawater temperature (between -1 and 30 degree C) similar to previous findings. In addition, we observed that the particle effective radius, as well as the particle surface, particle volume and particle mass, increased with increasing seawater temperature due to increased production of particles with dry diameters greater than 1 mu m. By combining these measurements with the volume of air entrained by the plunging jet we have determined the size-resolved particle flux as a function of air entrainment. Through the use of existing parameterisations of air entrainment as a function of wind speed, we were subsequently able to scale our laboratory measurements of particle production to wind speed. By scaling in this way we avoid some of the difficulties associated with defining the "white area" of the laboratory whitecap - a contentious issue when relating laboratory measurements of particle production to oceanic whitecaps using the more frequently applied whitecap method. The here-derived inorganic sea spray source function was implemented in a Lagrangian particle dispersion model (FLEXPART - FLEXible PARTicle dispersion model). An estimated annual global flux of inorganic sea spray aerosol of 5.9 plus or minus 0.2 Pg yr-1 was derived that is close to the median of estimates from the same model using a wide range of existing sea spray source functions. When using the source function derived here, the model also showed good skill in predicting measurements of Na+ concentration at a number of field sites further underlining the validity of our source function. In a final step, the sensitivity of a large-scale model (NorESM - the Norwegian Earth System Model) to our new source function was tested. Compared to the previously implemented parameterisation, a clear decrease of sea spray aerosol number flux and increase in aerosol residence time was observed, especially over the Southern Ocean. At the same time an increase in aerosol optical depth due to an increase in the number of particles with optically relevant sizes was found. That there were noticeable regional differences may have important implications for aerosol optical properties and number concentrations, subsequently also affecting the indirect radiative forcing by non-sea spray anthropogenic aerosols.
This study presents a new dynamical downscaling strategy for extreme events. It is based on a combination of statistical downscaling of coarsely resolved global model simulations and dynamical ...downscaling of specific extreme events constrained by the statistical downscaling part. The method is applied to precipitation extremes over the upper Aare catchment, an area in Switzerland which is characterized by complex terrain. The statistical downscaling part consists of an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) framework trained in a reference period. Thereby, dynamically downscaled precipitation over the target area serve as predictands and large-scale variables, received from the global model simulation, as predictors. Applying the ANN to long term global simulations produces a precipitation series that acts as a surrogate of the dynamically downscaled precipitation for a longer climate period, and therefore are used in the selection of events. These events are then dynamically downscaled with a regional climate model to 2 km. The results show that this strategy is suitable to constraint extreme precipitation events, although some limitations remain, e.g., the method has lower efficiency in identifying extreme events in summer and the sensitivity of extreme events to climate change is underestimated.
Resveratrol offers pleiotropic health benefits including a reported ability to inhibit lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced cytokine production. The aim of this work was to prepare, characterize, and ...evaluate a resveratrol nanoparticulate formulation based on zein. For this purpose, the oral bioavailability of the encapsulated polyphenol as well as its anti-inflammatory effects in a mouse model of endotoxic shock was studied. The resveratrol-loaded nanoparticles displayed a mean size of 307 ± 3 nm, with a negative zeta potential (−51.1 ± 1.55 mV), and a polyphenol loading of 80.2 ± 3.26 μg/mg. In vitro, the release of resveratrol from the nanoparticles was found to be pH independent and adjusted well to the Peppas–Sahlin kinetic model, suggesting a mechanism based on the combination of diffusion and erosion of the nanoparticle matrix. Pharmacokinetic studies demonstrated that zein-based nanoparticles provided high and prolonged plasma levels of the polyphenol for at least 48 h. The oral bioavailability of resveratrol when administered in these nanoparticles increased up to 50% (19.2-fold higher than for the control solution of the polyphenol). Furthermore, nanoparticles administered daily for 7 days at 15 mg/kg were able to diminish the endotoxic symptoms induced in mice by the intraperitoneal administration of LPS (i.e., hypothermia, piloerection, and stillness). In addition, serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) levels were slightly lower (approximately 15%) than those observed in the control.
We use the kinematics of ∼200 000 giant stars that lie within ∼1.5 kpc of the plane to measure the vertical profile of mass density near the Sun. We find that the dark mass contained within the ...isodensity surface of the dark halo that passes through the Sun ((6 ± 0.9) × 1010 M⊙), and the surface density within 0.9 kpc of the plane ((69 ± 10) M⊙ pc−2) are almost independent of the (oblate) halo's axis ratio q. If the halo is spherical, 46 per cent of the radial force on the Sun is provided by baryons, and only 4.3 per cent of the Galaxy's mass is baryonic. If the halo is flattened, the baryons contribute even less strongly to the local radial force and to the Galaxy's mass. The dark matter density at the location of the Sun is 0.0126 q
−0.89 M⊙ pc−3 = 0.48 q
−0.89 GeV cm−3. When combined with other literature results we find hints for a mildly oblate dark halo with q ≃ 0.8. Our value for the dark mass within the solar radius is larger than that predicted by cosmological dark-matter-only simulations but in good agreement with simulations once the effects of baryonic infall are taken into account. Our mass models consist of three double-exponential discs, an oblate bulge and a Navarro–Frenk–White dark matter halo, and we model the dynamics of the RAVE (RAdial Velocity Experiment) stars in the corresponding gravitational fields by finding distribution functions f J
that depend on three action integrals. Statistical errors are completely swamped by systematic uncertainties, the most important of which are the distance to the stars in the photometric and spectroscopic samples and the solar distance to the Galactic Centre. Systematics other than the flattening of the dark halo yield overall uncertainties ∼15 per cent.
•MOF composites has strong electrocatalytical activity.•MOF-modified carbon based electrodes can be applied for biomolecules sensing such as glucose and secondary metabolites.•MOF-modified carbon ...based electrodes are being developed for heavy metal quantification in aqueous media.
Metal-organic frameworks are novel materials with specific pore-size that presents unlimited applications in material sciences. The presence of metallic ions in the MOF structure offers a redox active material with electrocatalytical properties towards diverse biomolecules, organic compounds and heavy metals. This property can be combined with nanomaterials for create cheap carbon based electrodes with enhanced electroanalytical features (like selectivity, good low detection limits and high stability on alkali or acid media). In this review, we have collected recent information about MOF applications in carbon electrodes and fundamental aspects on the electroactive MOFs design, fabrication of MOF-modified carbon based electrodes, characterization of electrodes and examples of direct sensing with MOF-modified electrodes.
The establishment of a screening index would be a powerful tool to decide whether abandoned uranium mining areas should be rehabilitated or decommissioned. Thus, in this work we established a ...radiological index which uses the activity concentrations of different groups of gamma emitters from the natural radioactive series of 238U, 235U, and 232Th, as well as 40K and 137Cs. These activity concentrations were calculated by using the absorbed gamma radiation dose value of 175 nGy h−1 specified in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations. We studied our index in an abandoned uranium mining area in Salamanca, Western Spain, and found that the most influential factors in this area were the presence of organic matter in the soil and the possible effect that plants and fungi may have on the retention of these aforementioned radionuclides. In addition, the results showed that contaminants are migrating in an easterly direction in line with the prevailing wind direction and we were able to identify areas in which the radiological risk is likely high. The mean effective dose rate was 2.51 ± 0.98 mSv y−1 which was equivalent to the levels obtained in previous works.
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•Organic matter, plants and fungi are the principal factors on the retention of U.•Anaerobic conditions are the principal cause of Ra sorption onto soils.•The natural effective dose of the analyzed soils was higher than the world average.•The proposed index establishes whether U mining dump sites should be rehabilitated.
Main finding of the work: The proposed index can help establish whether uranium mining dump sites should be rehabilitated and decommissioned.
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